WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

“I think the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise what is there to defend?” - Robert Redford

A special piece of music for World Environment Day, which is today. It is Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No 6 in F major, “The Pastoral”, Op. 68. It is one of the most easily accessible of Beethoven’s orchestral works as it follows a program. Beethoven's own full title for the work was “Pastoral Symphony, or Recollections of Country Life”. It was composed in the same time period and dedicated to the same people as the more famous Fifth symphony. However, the two works have many differences. The “Pastoral” is known as a “characteristic” symphony and Beethoven publicly declared the piece’s “extramusical” purpose: It is an expression of nature. His affinity for nature and his love for walks through the country outside Vienna were captured in the Sixth, as well as in the notes scribbled on sketches of the symphony.

Here is the first movement: